It's supposedly a revised course, but I don't notice anything new. What changed?

It looks like they rounded off some of the old 90 degree turns and added a small chicane after the baseball field. It used to be you came up the hill past the baseball field and immediately turned left to cross the driveway. Now, you turn right after coming up that hill, and go around a curve before heading left to cross the driveway. With that extra chicane, the mile mark moves to the corner of the HS lot. 2 mile mark looks like it'll be near the same place it was before.

If the changes were made to make the course faster, I don't think they were successful. I've never felt Boardman to be a fast course, and today was no different. The heat is going to be tough, which doesn't always factor in at Boardman. We're home already, but D1 has only begun, as I write this.

The hairpins and hard 90 or almost-90 degree turns around the trees early on when the pack is still thick and just before and after the 2 mile mark made for a good place to see the middle of the race, but I didn't feel like they made the course better. Does anyone else? I think the turn around the 1 mile mark is probably an improvement (except for runners who are better tacticians and can get into open space and find a line and hold it), since it's on a downhill and that hard left sometimes put people on the ground. But unless there were other reasons to change things, I don't understand why there were necessary.

If the changes were made to make the course faster, I don't think they were successful. I've never felt Boardman to be a fast course, and today was no different. The heat is going to be tough, which doesn't always factor in at Boardman. We're home already, but D1 has only begun, as I write this.

The hairpins and hard 90 or almost-90 degree turns around the trees early on when the pack is still thick and just before and after the 2 mile mark made for a good place to see the middle of the race, but I didn't feel like they made the course better. Does anyone else? I think the turn around the 1 mile mark is probably an improvement (except for runners who are better tacticians and can get into open space and find a line and hold it), since it's on a downhill and that hard left sometimes put people on the ground. But unless there were other reasons to change things, I don't understand why there were necessary.

The changes didn't do much for me - definitely didn't speed it up. The course terrain is what it is, so it'll always be a slow course unless they find a way to start it up by the middle school and finish next to Glenwood Ave (i.e. create a net elevation loss). The alterations around the baseball field seemed like a solution to a problem that didn't exist.

I preferred the location of the old mile mark. If I'm recording splits, it was easier to spot my school's runners as they came down that long straight gradual downhill stretch than it as to try and spot them as they came barreling down the steeper downhill stretch.

If they want to move a mile mark, find a route that moves the 2 mile mark to either side of centerfield. I can't see the marker through the windscreens, and getting out of that area to go to the finish can be a pain when the race is at full go.

The best change was to split the DI races into a JV and open race, so that there weren't 700+ runners on the course at once.

Just checked the results again: Marlington's top 8th grader dropped a 9:55 in the DI MS race!

Odd question - Trying to remember the name of a fairgrounds a bit North or North-East of Columbus. The XC invite held there was mostly D2 and D3 schools.
Seem to remember heading through Delaware on 36.

What's the fairgrounds name, please? Anyone have an idea the place I'm rambling about?

Odd question - Trying to remember the name of a fairgrounds a bit North or North-East of Columbus. The XC invite held there was mostly D2 and D3 schools.
Seem to remember heading through Delaware on 36.

What's the fairgrounds name, please? Anyone have an idea the place I'm rambling about?

The Hartford Fairgrounds?

I vaguely remember that race. It was hosted by a school like Centerburg, IIRC.

This seems a lot different from the course I remember from the 90's. I wonder if the Canfield Fairgrounds course has changed too since then.

I'm not certain on what the Boardman course in the 90s was, but I can assure you that over the past 10 years alone, the Canfield Course experienced many changes. From what I understand the course doesn't even go through the woods anymore. From being a traditionally slow course about ten years ago, it is now a course where kids almost always PR.

From what I understand the course doesn't even go through the woods anymore. From being a traditionally slow course about ten years ago, it is now a course where kids almost always PR.

The woods was my favorite part. I never liked courses where you had to repeat a section of a course twice (ie a loop), or courses that were just boring. I think I recall running at Firestone where they had a loop you had to run twice as part of the course.

It looks like they rounded off some of the old 90 degree turns and added a small chicane after the baseball field. It used to be you came up the hill past the baseball field and immediately turned left to cross the driveway. Now, you turn right after coming up that hill, and go around a curve before heading left to cross the driveway. With that extra chicane, the mile mark moves to the corner of the HS lot. 2 mile mark looks like it'll be near the same place it was before.